


Funeral Blues

by flecksofpoppy



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon - Manga, Canon Compliant, Character Study, M/M, Post-85
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-21
Updated: 2016-09-21
Packaged: 2018-08-16 12:04:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8101747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flecksofpoppy/pseuds/flecksofpoppy
Summary: He wouldn’t trust anyone else right now to touch Erwin.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seitsensarvi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seitsensarvi/gifts).



> This is inspired by [ Sirius's art of Levi during SNK 85. Ow my heart. I have more in me for this subject, but this is just a little dabble. c:](http://seitsensarvi.tumblr.com/post/150270490930/did-he-ask-for-some-time-did-he-stay-at-his-side)
> 
> Also inspired by the [W.H. Auden poem "Funeral Blues."](https://allpoetry.com/Funeral-Blues)

Levi won’t leave the body—not until he hears Hanji order him to.

“We can’t leave him out here,” Levi says, standing stiffly as he stares down at Erwin’s bloodied body, voice flat and devoid of emotion.

“I’ll take him inside,” Hanji offers, her voice just as hard, her single good eye blinking at him widely. “You regroup?”

Levi just nods curtly, trusting Hanji with Erwin’s body since he doesn’t have the luxury of doing anything except focusing on breathing in air and telling the few soldiers they have left what need to know what happens next.

He wouldn’t trust anyone else right now to touch Erwin.

* * *

_Hanji has had too many drinks—a night of indulgence—and Levi is sitting in the barracks after she’s returned from the tavern, listening to her ramble._

_“Did you know,” she says, taking a pull from her flask, “that Titans don’t have genitals?”_

_Levi just pinches his nose, shaking his head in revulsion, but Hanji is oblivious. It’s been just a little over a year since he joined the Corps, and he can’t deny the fact that Hanji is brilliant, if not a little odd._

_“Your interest is concerning.” He tries to sound as disgusted as he feels._

_Hanji laughs loudly, and Levi cringes as she collapses into her bunk, rolling around like a lunatic. “One day,” she says, her eyes bright as she sits up to stare at him, “we’ll capture one, and then we’ll learn all about them.” She grins toothily at Levi, adjusting her glasses as she rolls onto her side, eyes hazy. “Won’t we, Levi?”_

_Levi rolls his eyes, making a dismissive sound, but he doesn’t say no._

_Suddenly, her face grows serious, and she meets Levi’s eyes. “Commander Smith approved the expedition yesterday.”_

_When Levi questions Erwin’s intelligence and sanity later, he’s given a curt reply that the prospect of capturing a Titan could prove beneficial._

_Levi calls him crazy; Erwin tells him Hanji knows what she’s doing._

_Levi curses at him; Erwin smiles._

_They kiss, and nothing is ever the same._

* * *

“She put fucking flowers in here.” Levi sits against the wall of a must attic, knees pressed up against his chest, not looking at the bed. “You’re allergic.”

Occasionally, a soldier would die in the Survey Corps whom no one knew was important—the idealistic son of a noble who wanted to go outside the Walls—until suddenly, several large flower arrangements would show up. They were always from the Interior, as if the court had heard about the unfortunate end of a neighbor’s son, and decided to go through the motions of expressing condolences.

Levi had never seen these types of flowers or arrangements—exotic, strange blooms that were meant to commemorate death in a way he’d never even conceived of—and they made him sneeze.

They made Erwin sneeze, too, after they’d been deposited in his office with no other rational destination. 

_“Nobles are polite about dying,”_ Levi had remarked, unamused, as he surveyed the way that one bloom littered pollen across Erwin’s desk.

Erwin had smiled a little from his desk, shaking his head, eyes watering with allergies a bit. _“If I die, please don’t send flowers.”_

Now, Levi shakes his head, staring down at the floorboards of the abandoned house, evacuated by some civilian who lived in the Shiganshina district and probably died in the fields or by jumping in the river after the refugee boat left, as so many did.

“Tough shit, old man,” he murmurs, closing his eyes and forcibly relaxing his throat as he grips a blood-stained bolo tie in his hand, “you got flowers anyway.”

He wants to laugh at the absurdity the situation, of how Erwin has never gotten what he asked for.

* * *

_Levi almost feels embarrassed at the sound of his own voice, the laughter that’s loud and absurd in the room._

_Erwin rolls over to kiss Levi’s neck, sunlight pouring over them in the early morning; when he pulls back, he looks almost stupidly boyish, mussed hair falling over his forehead._

_His smile is better than any smile that Levi has ever seen, and although Levi has been alive long enough to see plenty of things, unguarded, boyish grins aren’t high on the list._

_“Want to go again?” Levi asks, raising an eyebrow minutely._

_This time, it’s Erwin’s turn to laugh, as he kisses down to Levi’s shoulder through a smile. “Don’t know—I’m getting old,” he murmurs, focused more on the skin under his lips than Levi’s invitation, “and I’m missing an arm.”_

_Levi doesn’t comment on the dark joke, but he does roll onto his side to be closer, tilts his head back for Erwin obediently to expose his throat._

_Immediately, the blue of Erwin’s eyes darkens, and he inhales sharply._

_“I missed you,” he says simply, before climbing on top balancing himself with his good arm, not letting Levi answer as he presses their lips together._

* * *

“Levi.”

Levi doesn’t look up for a moment.

“It’s time to go to the basement.” Hanji rubs a bit of blood encrusted to her forehead off, and she takes in the scene, staring at the flowers.

“What the hell are those?” Levi asks, motioning at the vase of blooms on the battered table.

Hanji shrugs a bit, and Levi’s gaze is caught when he sees her throat tighten. “Something I never did before for anyone.”

Levi still doesn’t meet her eyes, but he pulls himself up, straightening his jacket and slipping the bolo tie into his pocket. “Let’s go.” He strides across the room, glancing back once.

* * *

_“Did you know that humankind used to have funerals?”_

_Levi snorts, crossing his legs and raising an eyebrow as he sits on the couch across from Erwin’s desk, staring skeptically._

_“You mean pyres?”_

_Erwin signs a form, sprinkling some powder onto it to help dry the ink, and he meets Levi’s eyes thoughtfully. “No, funerals, with flowers. They’d bury the bodies.”_

_“Seems like a waste of space.”_

_Erwin chuckles. “Maybe humanity once had the pleasure to be indulgent with their mourning.”_

* * *

Levi returns to the room hours later, after he’s learned what a photograph is, and it’s dark.

It stinks of flowers, death, and silence, and he sinks back down to sit against the wall. “I saw a photograph today,” he whispers, staring at the rough hewn floor. “It looked exactly the way you described.”

The room goes quiet after that, and Levi knows that he will be indulgent with his mourning, until he is mourned himself—if he is mourned—and he falls asleep there against the wall.

All is quiet in the gloaming of funeral flowers.

**Author's Note:**

> [ I have a tumblr.](http://flecksofpoppy.tumblr.com/) c:


End file.
